Understanding your personal sleep needs and adapting your routine to suit will set you on the right track for a great day. Here’s how.
How much sleep do you need tonight? Getting the right amount of sleep sets the stage for success in practically every area of life. And yet, answering this basic question can be surprisingly complicated.
SLEEP COACH
How much sleep do you need tonight? Getting the right amount of sleep sets the stage for success in practically every area of life. And yet, answering this basic question can be surprisingly complicated.
Experts typically recommend that healthy adults get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night. Studies also show that most people sleep less and need less sleep as they get older. Powered by Firstbeat Analytics™, Garmin sleep coach combines expert sleep advice with input from your life to help you better understand your own nightly sleep needs.
CALCULATING YOUR PERSONAL SLEEP NEED
Your personal nightly sleep need is calculated with five key factors: your age, daily and longer-term activity levels, recent sleep history, naps taken and heart rate variability (HRV). Considered together, these factors are used to increase or decrease your personal sleep need recommendation.
Your personal sleep need for the upcoming night is estimated by when you wake up in the morning. This initial estimate is then modified throughout the day based on how active you are and any naps you take.
Garmin sleep coach will never suggest less than 7 hours or more than 9 hours of sleep in a single night. Seven hours of sleep is considered a minimum requirement for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE SLEEP
AGE
Determining your nightly sleep need starts with an age-dependent baseline. The baseline sleep recommendation for adults under the age of 35 is 8 hours. This recommendation gradually decreases with age so that adults over the age of 65 start from a baseline recommendation of 7.5 hours of sleep each night.
ACTIVITY HISTORY
Sleep provides the foundation you need to thrive in an active lifestyle. This is because sleep plays an essential role in facilitating your body’s recovery processes. Finding the right balance between challenging activities and opportunities to recover is the key to achieving your fitness and performance goals.
Garmin sleep coach combines daily and longer-term perspectives to dial in your activity-driven sleep needs. Recording activities with your Garmin device is the best way to ensure they are fully accounted for in your sleep need estimate. Activity minutes automatically recorded during the day are also considered.
A hard workout can significantly increase your sleep need for the night. A light or inactive day, on the other hand, may slightly reduce your sleep need. Sleep need adjustments based on your longer-term activity patterns are more complicated. Advanced analytics consider the frequency and strenuousness of your activities over the past few weeks and whether you have been pushing yourself harder or easier than normal.
Garmin sleep coach will not encourage you to sleep more than 9 hours, even when your workout habits are extreme. Try incorporating naps into your routine if you feel that 9 hours of sleep isn’t giving you the support you need.
SLEEP HISTORY
Sleep debt and sleep banking are concepts that help explain how your sleep history can affect your current sleep need. A short night can leave you feeling sluggish and tired. This is called a sleep debt. You need to pay it off with more sleep in the future to get back to normal. An especially good night, on the other hand, may slightly reduce your sleep need for the next night. This is referred to as sleep banking.
Sleep debts can increase your sleep need. Sleep banking decreases your current sleep need.
In addition to last night, how you slept during the three previous nights can play a role in determining your current sleep need. How well you slept last night makes the biggest difference to your projected sleep need, but one good night will not fully erase the effects of several bad nights in a row. Similarly, a pattern of good sleep can help reduce the impact of a single challenging night.
NAPS
Taking a nap is a good way to alleviate feelings of tiredness during the day. The short duration of most naps means they are primarily light sleep. Sleep cycles that include sleep and REM sleep stages that support mental and physical health take longer to form. This is one reason why even serial napping is a poor replacement for a full night’s sleep.
Napping can reduce your nightly sleep need recommendation and will never increase it. The size of your nap-related sleep need decrease is influenced by the length of your nap.
HRV
HRV is a statistical description of changes in the length of time between consecutive heartbeats. The value of HRV as a metric comes from the fact that your heartbeats are closely regulated by your autonomic nervous system, which governs a wide variety of physiological systems.
With the right context, HRV can be interpreted to reveal how well your body is navigating the challenges of life and environment. Normal, healthy HRV levels vary from one person to the next, so it is essential to establish the range of variability that is natural for you. Your personal baseline creates context needed for interpretation and helps determine your sleep needs.
When your HRV is higher than your typical baseline, it can be a sign that you are well recovered and ready for action. Your current sleep habits are having the desired effect. Lower personal HRV levels are often associated with combinations of stress, lingering recovery needs from exercise or your immune system fighting infection. Alcohol consumption can also contribute to lower HRV due to the additional strain your body experiences during the metabolizing process.
SUMMARY
Insight offered by your Garmin sleep coach helps eliminate guesswork when it comes to connecting the dots between your sleep habits and the lifestyle you want to achieve. Over time, you will recognise these connections instinctively while benefiting from the results.
DID YOU KNOW?
AIA Vitality members using a compatible fitness device or app linked to AIA Vitality can earn 10 points each time they sleep for a minimum of 7 hours. A total of 2,000 points can be earned per membership year for sleep tracking.
AIA Vitality members can save up to 25% off the recommended retail price on selected Garmin devices, when the Garmin online store is accessed from the AIA Vitality member website or the AIA Vitality mobile app.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as financial, medical, health, nutritional, tax or other advice. It does not take into account any individual’s personal situation or needs. You should consider obtaining professional advice from a financial adviser and/or tax specialist, or medical or health practitioner, in relation to your own circumstances and before acting on this information.
Brought to you by AIA Vitality partner Garmin.
Garmin is a leading producer of GPS navigation and wearable technology that can help you kick-start a fit, healthy and productive lifestyle.
Comments